Wherein keeping in mind that "to fight in bed" means having sex make it funnier.
This is the last chapter to volume 2.
Thank you, Emma P for proofreading.
Also, thank you to the people who have tipped me on Ko-fi. It's the first time I set up a ko-fi ever so I'm quite excited at any response. Thank you for your support! It's much appreciated. The current goal is ads-free hosting so if you want to contribute here is the link :)
Notes
1. 无常鬼 or "god of impermanence" is a minor deity in so-called Traditional Chinese Religion. Guardians of the netherworld, the dual 黑白無常 or "black and white Wuchang" that manifests as two separate deities, one black, one white, is more common than the single person version. In the web-series, 无常鬼 (the guy in greenish robes with black lipstick) is the boss of his own group in the "Ghosts' Valley", and 黑無常 and 白無常 are two of his underlings. Since the author doesn't follow strictly historical mythology, I translated the name as "Two-Faced Devil" to reflect the implied changing nature of the character.
2. 明人不说暗话 collq. saying translated literally. A very common phrase in wuxia that online dictionaries mistranslate. The 明 refers to 明白 or "someone who is knowledgeable/understands".
3. 长舌鬼 translated literally. Most likely artistic licence on modern ghost lore.
4. 布衾多年冷似铁, from My Cottage Unroofed By Autumn Gales by Du Fu
5. 侍寝 or lit. " to attend upon smb's sleep" is a euphemistic saying meaning the activities expected of an Emperor's concubine when she is chosen as the Emperor's companion for the night (a.k.a. sex). In ZZS' mouth, it's (weakly) sardonic as he implies that he is the emperor, and WKX would be taking on the concubine's/subordinate's role, which is braggy and potentially offensive.
6. WKX states that ZZS is 却之为不恭. ZZS replies that he is 受之有愧. Both idioms are often used conjointly and describe a situation where, as one receives a magnificent gift, one is put in a situation of embarrassment as refusing is uncourteous, but accepting is inappropriate. It touches on what some describes as "a culture of gift/counter-gift", i.e. In China, it is generally acknowledged that when one receives a gift, one is expected to give one in return. Which confers another meaning to the exchange: ZZS is saying that he may not be able to return WKS' sexual "services".
7. Ewww, lol.
Been loving the translations and the extra notes so far - there are some things I kind of knew but didn’t have the full context of, so it’s great to see the full explanation.
For footnote 2 though, I thought the 明 was from 光明正大, as in someone who is honest/have nothing to hide?
So the phrase 明人不說暗話 would mean, “I have nothing to hide so I’ll speak plainly.”?
Thanks for the translation ❤️
I second the "Ewww" in the notes
Despite that it seems like Zhou Zishu is fighting back a bit less, so it must be working for him 😂
Our villain was fully veiled...I wonder if we've met them already (((( ;°Д°))))
Thanks for the chapter!
Lol@ 7